CSU looks to Victoria for med school partnership

Charles Sturt University (CSU) is joining forces with another university in a bid to set up a medical school in regional New South Wales

CSU has formed an alliance with La Trobe University in Victoria.

The partnership would see CSU's plans for a medical school based across its Orange and Wagga Wagga campuses expanded to included a centre in Bendigo.

Charles Sturt Vice Chancellor, Professor Andrew Vann, says the joint initiative would cost $45m, which is around $30m less than CSU's original proposal.

"The school itself would have, not exactly an independent entity, but it would be something that was jointly owned by the two universities," he said.

"We and our staff would work with the staff from the school.

"So it's a shared enterprise agreement across the three sites and we would share curriculum, some aspects of teaching and also the opportunity for some students to rotate through the various areas as well.

"We have reduced the level of capital funding being requested and we've now come down to $45 million to cover the three sites.

"Part of that is because we're taking things out of the proposal.

"So our original proposal had a large number of masters programs in health, which we've removed.

"So we've already cut it back to purely the medical school.

"At a time when we know federal budgets are very tight, that's going to be an advantage."